Difference between revisions of "Category:Wayne County Historical Landmark"

The movement to recognize historical places in Wayne County, Ohio started at the Wayne County Historical Society of Ohio in 1971 when a temporary study committee was appointed to research historical buildings, residences, and places within the county. By 1972 it was noted that several old historical buildings were destroyed by fire, pernicious vandalism, or simply demolished to construct new buildings. These shocking events caused many historically minded people in the community to take action and start a recognition program to research and mark the historically significant structures and places within the county. Educating the public about the history and architectural features of the structures designated as Wayne County Historical Landmarks encourages all the people within the community to take the necessary steps to preserve and maintain these old structures for future generations.

The historical society's temporary study committee was given permanent status and named the Landmark Committee. They proposed to vigorously adopt the historic places recognition program in order to encourage preservation of historic structures within the county over the four-year period leading up to the nation's 1976 Bicentennial Celebration. By 1976, 256 places had been accepted into the recognition program. In the process of evaluating and studying the nominations made by citizens, quite a number of the nominated houses and buildings were more than 100-years-old but did not have historic significance to be deemed a Landmark. In order to recognize these types of places the committee, with the backing of the Society Trustees, set up two new classes of historical places. One category recognized Century Houses, which are places that have been owned by the same family for more than 100 years. The other category recognized Pioneer Houses: residences that were at least 100 years old or more. However, by 2012, the Landmark Committee noted that the original Pioneer House designation no longer fit its original intention of recognizing places built by early county settlers and made two changes to the recognition program. Going forward to qualify as a Pioneer House, the structure had to have been built before 1900. After that the house that was built in 1900 or later and was 100-years-old qualified for a new 100-Year-Old House designation.

Of the original 256 places accepted into the 1976 recognition program, 65 were given "Wayne County Historical Landmark" status. They appear below.